California Proposition 8 (2008 - Ballotpedia)
Background
California first explicitly defined marriage as a state between a man and woman in 1977.[7] That year, the California State Legislature passed a law that said that marriage is a "personal relation arising out of a civil contract between a man and a woman". While no previous California legislation contained explicit language regarding sex or gender, California law prior to 1959 explicitly prohibited marriage between people of different races. Many other states prohibited interracial marriage until 1967, when the United States Supreme Court ruled this unconstitutional, in the case Loving v. Virginia. [8]
In 2000, voters passed ballot initiative Proposition 22 with a margin of 61%, which changed
California Family Code to formally define marriage in California between a man and a woman. Prop. 22 was a statutory change via the initiative process, not a constitutional change via the initiative process.
In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom performed same-sex marriages in his city, which were subsequently judicially annulled. This case, and some others, eventually led to a
decision announced on May 15, 2008 of the California Supreme Court, which by a 4-3 vote struck down Proposition 22.[9]
Prior to the May 2008 state supreme court decision,
opponents of same-sex marriage had already begun their efforts to qualify Prop. 8 for the ballot. Their reasoning at the time was that since Prop. 22 was only a statute, it was subject to judicial review in a way that an amendment to the constitution would not be.[10],[11],[12]
When supporters of Proposition 8 submitted their measure to the California Secretary of State in 2007 for permission to circulate, the ballot title that was given to it was the "California Marriage Protection Act." At that time, Proposition 22 was the governing law in the state with regard to gay marriage and the term "marriage protection" appears to have meant something like "adding additional protection to the idea of one man-one woman marriage by enshrining it in the constitution, not just as a statute". However, between the time that Prop. 8 got its original permission-to-circulate ballot title, and the time they turned in their signatures and became ballot certified, Prop. 22 no longer had any governing force.[13] After the proposition was certified for the ballot, the title and summary were revised by Attorney General Jerry Brown to more "accurately reflect the measure." (See Lawsuits, California Proposition 8 (2008)).
